Although the County National Bank had ended its career as an institution, there was still a great deal of necessary work going on at the main office. In fact, on this particular night, workers had been on hand until almost twelve o'clock.
Now, only the watchman remained, patrolling his rounds in his usual slow and methodical fashion. There was little chance that anyone would attempt to enter this defunct banking house, and the sluggishness of the watchman indicated his tendency toward mere routine.
High above the floor was a balcony that extended around the outer edge of the main room. Here were situated the clerks' working quarters. A row of adding machines bore testimony to the size of the staff that had once worked there. A heavy, grated door barred the top of the stairway at the balcony. Hardly had the heavy tread of the watchman died away before a tiny light appeared upon the balcony. The light shone near a corner, and it indicated that some one had entered one of the balcony windows that opened upon a narrow alleyway at the side of the bank.
The entire balcony was grated; and the top of the grating ran along a series of crossbeams. The light climbed upward along the grating. It went out as an invisible figure squeezed itself between two beams. Then the unseen prowler descended the grating until he hung suspended above the floor of the banking room.
There was a dull plop as the invisible form dropped lightly from the balcony. The light reappeared for an instant; then vanished.
The Shadow was in the County National Bank!
The only token of the mysterious one's presence was the occasional flicker of the light, which appeared unexpectedly in various places. The keenest listener could not have trailed the progress of The Shadow. His light showed in the little office where Hubert Salisbury had talked with Wellington. It beamed upon the huge vault, and The Shadow's black-gloved hand appeared before it. The entire floor was subjected to a thorough inspection.
The watchman, going on his rounds, heard nothing that attracted his attention. When he approached, the light went out, and all was still within the large room.
At last, the light appeared downstairs. There, it showed on the floor — on the exact spot where Wellington had been found dead. The light swept along the walls.
When it again reappeared, it was upstairs once more, in Salisbury's little office. There, beneath a tiny circle of light, a hand — no longer gloved — appeared and began to write.
Hubert Salisbury — story correct. Wellington suspected truth — but did not know. Bank entered by careful plotters. Vault shows signs of expert work in opening it. Drawer in Salisbury's desk has been opened by a special key. Revolver removed evidently as a precaution for the future. Only possible egress through room below. Man entered; listened to conversation between S. and W. Murder committed. Gun left.
The paper disappeared. The light went out. A slight swish told that The Shadow was leaving the office. Again his torch illuminated the downstairs room. There, it began a thorough examination of the floor. As clearly as if Wellington's body had been lying there, The Shadow pictured the scene when the investigator had died. His flashlight moved along the dusty floor, looking for hidden clues. It reached the side of the room, where the grating of the safe-deposit compartment made a corner with the wall itself. There, it gleamed upon a smooth, solid panel.
This was the spot that The Shadow sought. All other portions of the wall were alike; but here, a broad panel was bisected by the last vertical bar of the grating.
The Shadow's light was on the floor and along the wall. The hand, now gloved, tapped the panel. It sought everywhere for some secret contrivance. It found nothing but smooth surface.
The light went out. The Shadow was pondering, in the midst of Stygian gloom. His intuitive mind had declared that there must be some entrance here.
Wellington had hinted that fact, Salisbury had said, but the police ridiculed the idea.
Searchers had examined the room. They had not even suspected anything amiss.
The Shadow knew that something lay on the other side of that wall. He was considering one fact. Was it possible that the only way of forcing this barrier lay from the other side?
A plausible possibility. With no means of operating from this room, no one could discover the opening. But that also meant a disadvantage. It meant that should any one enter here and close the way behind him, he would have no means of exit.
A low, eerie laugh sounded in the darkness. The Shadow's light showed on the smooth panel; then turned and shone upon the upright pickets of the metal barrier. These were divided by a horizontal bar at the center.
The black hand gripped each lower post in turn, starting with the wall and moving away.
After a short space, it started backward along the upper tier.
These upright bars were square in shape. One, set at a slight angle, twisted a trifle under the powerful grasp. Hidden eyes observed that the lower portion of the post — below the horizontal rail — did not respond to the twist. The bar was in two sections!
Carefully, The Shadow's hand tried the lower portion of the post. It would not twist, nor would it move up or down. Then the hand went back to the upper portion, and turned it so that it was exactly squared with the lower.
The hand gripped the lower post and pressed upward. There was a response. The lower portion went up. The bottom part of the upper post was hollow. Slightly larger — not enough to be noticeable to the eye — it allowed reception of the lower post!
What appeared to be a solid bar was in reality two sections. The upper must be set just right in order that the lower might operate. The Shadow had discovered the subtle secret. His action — the short upward stroke — forced a mechanism in the thick, horizontal bar. The entire panel on the near side of the grating swung inward from the bottom!
It was suspended from a rod hinge at the top. So closely did it fit that even a thin blade could not have pried between the edges of the secret door. Now, with the barrier swung loose, The Shadow placed his hands against it, and drew it upward. It was nothing but a thin metal facing. Behind the panel, The Shadow discovered a solid wall of stone. This barrier refused to budge. The Shadow's light pried everywhere.
From beneath his cloak, The Shadow drew a long, slender blade of steel. It glittered as the hand thrust it into a crevice between the next panel and the stone barrier. The blade curled as the hand used it to probe the thin space.
A click sounded. The stone barrier yielded to pressure. It moved backward. The Shadow was in a small compartment. He found a projection on the inner side of the swinging panel, and pulled it firmly shut. The glowing eyes observed a metal bar that corresponded to the special post on the grating in the outside room. The Shadow's light revealed a passageway. He stepped beyond the stone barrier and pushed the bulwark back into its place.
Then he discovered the bar like catch which his probing blade had released. The whole scheme of entry was now apparent.
The passageway had been built in the foundations of the building. Its solid stone wall had a removable section, which could be drawn backward in a groove like track. In place, with locking bar in position, this portion of the wall was unyielding.
Even if the metal panels had been removed from the downstairs room of the bank, no evidence would have been uncovered to show the operation of the stone wall. It was an amazing contrivance of ingenuity, yet simple, because it had been built in with the foundation.
Where did the passage lead?
The Shadow took a straight path through the dark, into a veritable catacomb, hollowed in the very base of the building that formed this modern city block. The passage ended in a stone barrier, many yards away from the opening leading into the County National Bank.
Here The Shadow, in total darkness, found a portion of stone wall that drew backward.
His hands, plying here and there, discovered a catch that operated another panel. Quietly, The Shadow slipped through the opening. He waited in silence for a few minutes, then turned on the rays of the torch.
He was in the basement of the Middletown undertaking establishment — a room that could serve either as a storage place or a temporary morgue. Stacks of coffins stood at the sides of the room. A large sliding door in the farther wall denoted an entrance to another compartment. The Shadow laughed. The sound that emerged from his hidden lips filled the air with a convulsive shiver that stifled itself within the stone-walled room.
The Shadow was gone; back the way that he had come. Once more his seeking light glimmered through the hollowed passage. He stopped at a spot halfway along the lengthy corridor. Here he found another portion of the wall that bore the features of a secret exit. The black-clad man drew back the wall. He discovered a panel similar to the one that he had used when he had effected his first entrance into this strange catacomb. He pressed a lever and made his way from the corridor, carefully closing the opening behind him.
His flashlight, guarded carefully, showed him that he had reached a downstairs room in the Middletown Trust Company. It was similar to the room in the County National Bank. But here there was no grating. The side of a doorway formed the edge of the secret panel, and The Shadow's keen inspection soon found that the upper molding of the doorway moved to the left, allowing the right side of the doorway to move upward, thus releasing the panel in the wall. With this knowledge at his disposal, The Shadow extinguished his torch and moved silently upstairs.
There was no watchman prowling through the banking room. Satisfied that he would be free from interruption, The Shadow removed a black bag of tools from his cloak. He began to work upon the vault. As he progressed, he seemed to discover certain peculiarities in its construction.
It was not long before, the master hand completed its work. The vault stood open, and The Shadow entered.
The tiny flashlight, bobbing here and there, showed plainly that Judge had not exaggerated the resources of the Middletown Trust Company. Vast quantities of bills, of all denominations, were stacked in their proper places.
The Shadow began a patient examination. At times, his light went out, and he remained silent in the steel-walled cavern. Then his inspection began again.
In one compartment of the vault, The Shadow discovered stacks of crisp new bills. He took one bundle and slipped it beneath his coat. Then he gave his attention to another place where older bills were bundled.
Here, The Shadow discovered a few certificates of one-thousand-dollar denomination. He took some of these, and added others of five-hundred-dollar denomination, Completing his extraction with notes of one-hundred-dollar value, he made up a total sum of thirty thousand dollars. Directly upon the remainder of the stack, The Shadow placed three bills which he brought from his own pocket — each a gold certificate for ten thousand dollars.
A steely laugh sounded low within the vault, and the metal walls flung back the sound as though they, too, were laughing. The figure in black emerged and very softly closed the door of the vault. Hundreds of thousands of dollars had been at his disposal, had The Shadow chosen to rob the vault. He had taken only a small quantity of new bills — a petty, trifling amount. But he had used this opportunity to provide himself with change for the thirty thousand dollars that he had left within the vault.
One more task remained. On the back of a deposit slip, The Shadow was writing a brief message — using a fountain pen. He placed the written sheet in a small envelope, and reached through one teller's window to drop the envelope in a convenient spot.
The Shadow's soft laugh sounded sibilant as the mysterious man made his way back to the secret panel, in the room downstairs. He opened it, and again reached the underground passage. He turned his steps toward the undertaking establishment.
Reaching the morgue in the cellar, The Shadow went through the farther door and stole upstairs until he stood in the silent gloom of a funeral parlor. Here he discovered a hall that led to a rear door. The door, itself, was double-locked. The Shadow, with the aid of an oddly shaped key, not only picked the locks, but relocked the door from the outside, after he had stepped into the alley. Here he stood in a blind driveway into which hearses and delivery trucks could be backed. The alley was dark and deserted. The form of The Shadow was invisible as it moved toward the street. Tonight, The Shadow had learned the innermost secrets of the strange doings which concerned five men in Middletown — The Five Chameleons.
In all his actions, he had been cautious. He could have departed, leaving no possible clue to the fact that he had been within the walls and vault of the Middletown Trust Company. Yet The Shadow had chosen to leave signs of his visit. He had taken a labeled pile of bills. He had left notes of large denomination in place of smaller. He had put a sealed envelope where he knew it would surely be discovered.
What was the purpose of these actions?
Only The Shadow knew!